


A Moment's Visitation

by Trivena_Butterfly



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lucrezia won, Posthumous visit, but not for long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28020153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trivena_Butterfly/pseuds/Trivena_Butterfly
Summary: Somewhere, he's sure, there must be a universe where everything went right, where everyone survived, and they got to have a happy ending.Tarvek hasn't found it yet.Postscript to RoryMercury's A Moment's Hesitation.
Relationships: Agatha Heterodyne/Gilgamesh "Gil" Wulfenbach, Agatha Heterodyne/Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Tarvek Sturmvoraus & Gilgamesh "Gil" Wulfenbach
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	A Moment's Visitation

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Moment's Hesitation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28023210) by [RoryMercury](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoryMercury/pseuds/RoryMercury). 



This was not the Mechanicsburg he knew. The streets, while not completely empty, were too quiet; the people were too solemn. And none of them tarried long: the merest glance, and they hurried away, as though wishing they'd looked somewhere else.

He found the reason in the town square, a mere block away from where the monument to the Heterodyne Boys stood in triumph. Carved in stone sat Agatha, smiling down at a book in her lap, oblivious to the passing of time as her city mourned around her. But it was the second figure, peering over her shoulder, that startled him, and though the likenesses were perfect he still dragged his gaze down to read the inscription on the pedestal:

AGATHA HETERODYNE  
&  
TARVEK STURMVORAUS  
The Last Of Their Lines

It was not long before he became aware of a once-familiar presence. Of course; if he was alive, it was here that he would be.

Tarvek ran through any number of questions he wanted to ask: who survived, did we win, how did we save Mechanicsburg? but they all seemed less important than the one he asked aloud: "What happened?"

"Agatha died," he heard Gilgamesh Wulfenbach reply. "You... took it badly."

There were very few things that could mean. He kept his gaze firmly fixed on the inscription. "Who did I kill?"

He didn't turn around to hear the answer: "Everyone you blamed."

Tarvek reached out to the inscription, as though touch would reveal it an illusion. It stayed resolutely solid, as he knew it would. He knew himself. "I... see," he said at last.

"Please stay," Gil begged. "I've missed you so much, and..."

"I can't. You know how lab experi-"

And Gilgamesh was alone again.

~~~

In the ruin that did its best to serve as his laboratory, Tarvek stared unseeingly through his equations. "Wrong timeline," he whispered. Then he picked up the duster, brushed away a tear, and began cleaning his chalkboard again.

**Author's Note:**

> This story began with a mental image of Tarvek looking at the statue described in "A Moment's Hesitation" and wondering what had happened. The rest grew from there.
> 
> Yes, I know the time-viewing machinery seen in the Twitter timeline doesn't work quite like that. This way made a better story.
> 
> A note from RoryMercury:  
> The funeral urn that has Agatha’s ashes in it are in the base of the statue’s dais. There are no ashes in Tarvek’s urn, just the clothes that he wore when he died. Gil couldn’t make himself put his glasses in when the time came. He keeps them in his front pocket wherever he goes.
> 
> There is a spot for his own urn when the time comes, on the other side of Agatha’s. Gil’s statue is meant to be looking over Agatha’s other shoulder. Gil made them all, at the same time, because in truth, he died the same day Agatha and Tarvek did.


End file.
